One Nation…

“…under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.  What ever happened to our national unity?

The union began to separate when Ronald Reagan ushered in divisiveness in our nation by demonizing liberal thinking.  This was unpatriotic because it polarized our nation by pitting Americans against Americans.  It also ushered in a fascist mentality in which any American that didn’t think like the Reagan conservatives was considered to be un-American.  This way of thinking was bolstered in 1988 when Rush Limbaugh first took to the air with his hate filled messages targeting liberals.  That same year, the Presidential campaign was one of the most vial campaigns which again pitted Americans against Americans by separating the conservatives from the liberals.  These years of “fiscal conservatives” created large national deficits and it was during this time that “union busting” and deregulation became standard practice by both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.  It also gave birth to the “religious right” which further spread the message of hate.

This way of thinking continues to this day.  It divides us and weakens our nation.  There is an Italian proverb, “In union there is strength”.  With globablization of the world’s economy, the United States needs to be united.  Instead we are still facing racism and hatred.  By acting like a dictator, George W. Bush further divides our nation.  When John McCain’s anger rears its nasty head and attacks with lies, he, too, divides our nation.

Barack Obama said, “There is not a liberal America.  There is not a conservative America.  There is the United States of America”.

Here’s is his 2004 speech of unity for ALL Americans, not just red states or blue states, ALL Americans.  Let me re-introduce you to Barack Obama and the politics of “Hope… God’s greatest gift to us”.

And here is his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Small Town

Currently, I live in a small community, population approximately 3000 people give or take a few hundred. I also lived in big cities like Philadelphia and Boston and a medium size city like Reading.

What I learned is that there is very little difference between the people from a small town and a large city. In both places, some people attend churches and some people don’t; some people own guns and some people don’t; some people take care of their health and some people don’t; some teenagers have premarital sex and some teenagers don’t; some residents are heterosexual and some residents aren’t; some people are kind and caring and some people are mean and nasty; some people have loving families and some people suffer abuse from a family member; some people are honest and some people lie; some people pay taxes and some people make fraudulent insurance claims; some people have pets and some people don’t; and some people volunteer and some people don’t.

Republicans don’t own small towns. Democrats don’t own small towns. The same is true for large cities.

There are some things that all these people do. Everyone breathes the air, everyone needs clean water, everyone needs safe food to eat and everyone must eliminate waste materials from their bodies. You see, small town, big town, it doesn’t matter. We are all the same.

Republicans at their convention spoke of divisiveness between Liberals and Conservatives. Barack Obama says “There are no Red States and there are no Blue States. There is only the United States of America.” In Wisconsin and at the Republican Convention, John McCain and Sarah Palin make it sound like they only care about “small towns”. How about caring for all Americans? That would be a novel idea for Republicans.